fears

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of fear.

   He learned to face his fears one at a time.

   Childhood fears often fade as we grow older.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable side of fear: particular dreads, phobias, the things one is afraid of (face your fears, childhood fears). The emotion itself and the old reverent sense, as in fear of God or of a sovereign, are mass nouns and rarely take a plural. The British hangover dread is normally met as the fear. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in he fears the dark.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of fear.

   He fears that the whole project will fall apart before launch.

   The captain fears the worsening weather ahead of the crossing.

   Note

   What follows the verb matters more than its -s ending. It takes a direct object (he fears the dark), a that-clause (she fears that the launch will slip), or for when the worry is on someone else's behalf: he fears for his brother. With God as object it leans toward awe rather than alarm. An obsolete use ran the other way and meant to frighten, so a storm that fears the sailors terrifies them.

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